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CotV Chapter Twenty-Three
Subchapter One: "Breaking" and Entering I crept forward, keeping an eye on the two Verians carrying boxes of acid through the the throng of late-night travelers bustling through the soft dirt streets, green scaly skin making contact with my own. The Verians moving past me kept their heads down when near to the two workers. Fear, but of what? The Gott-Meinian acid? If so, I could sympathize. They took a corner and I went to follow them, but hung back as soon as I was about to take the right curve into what appeared to be an alley. Unlike the rest of the city, it was barren, no overcrowded populace moving every which way, and it seemed to lead to a metal building behind the stone homes. I'd be instantly noticed if I entered. I looked up into the air, but any view I might have had of the imposing building was obscured by the high-stacked stone and clay homes connected by a frenetic latticework of narrow wooden platforms, not to mention all the Verians moving about on said platforms. They didn't appear to be a species geared toward aesthetics. I angled my gaze back to the now-empty passage. The workers had, boxes and all, entered the building. I deftly moved into the alley, looking for all the world as if I was doing my duty for whatever ruling power existed here. An iron door stood in my path, blocking entry to the complex, but I was Verian only in view and feel; my brain and player capabilities remained untouched by the surface-morph illusion coating my body like a weightless skinsuit. I procured my stone pickaxe from my inventory and the door was nothing before me. I entered slowly and directly. A three-way hall faced me, running off to my left and right as well as in front of me. Whoever did the place's lighting must have been on extended leave, as most of the inside was swamped in darkness. I made a mental note that mobs should have been spawning, but weren't. I'd completely lost track of the carriers. Soft taps echoed uncomfortably through the weirdly circular-structured walls as I took small, ginger steps into the place. I wondered for a second whether anyone knew about this place, as it certainly wasn't visible from the street. Could this be an entirely secret location? My brain went back to the way the other Verians acted around the box-carriers, ducking their heads and moving out of their way, and I thought Probably not. I continued forward toward the lit door I saw in front of me. I'd figure out what was behind this if it killed me, and it had a high chance to. Subchapter Two: Guys, Guys, It's All A Big Misunderstanding One of the two Verians cried out at Alex, "Get on the ground, intruder!" "I'm not an intruder, I'm not!" Alex defended. Doug leapt from a corner, snarling at them. One aimed his gun at him. The muscular Verians advanced slowly, brandishing their weapons. "I know Sandra, I promise!" Alex yelled. "I told you to get. On. The ground!" the same one snarled. "Intruder, intruder, what is all this?" a quieter voice demanded behind them. A shorter, stouter Verian woman pushed through the two policesque lizards. "Who is- oh my! Cass, it's so wonderful to see you!" she said, her voice turning softer and losing alarm. The elderly Verian moved forward, hugged Alex, and turned to the two Verian police. "Leave my house! You should be ashamed of yourselves. You should know Cass by now! Leave! Now!" she commanded, stern once more. "How dare you harass my guest like this?" She turned back to Alex. "I am so, so sorry, it is so good to see you again. I didn't realize you were coming." She returned to admonish the leaving police one more time. "Shame on you!" she yelled after them, before turning and heading toward the kitchen. "Let me make you some tea, dear, tell me about what else has been happening. I'm so, so sorry about that." ---- "...and that's why I'm here," Alex explained her fake mission, under the guise of 7 Agency operative Cass, to Sandra, the elder Verian. She took a sip of the tea Sandra had prepared. "How interesting," Sandra answered from across the small dining table at which they sat. "I don't know anything about these words, though. They seem entirely random to me." Alex's face fell. Sandra was one of the greatest minds she knew at figuring out puzzles. "You have no clue?" Alex asked. "How?" "There are no clues to have, nothing I can tell you to figure out." Sandra, having finished her own tea, stood from the table, moving slowly to the wastebin to deposit the bag and to the sink to rinse the cup. Doug lazily watched her move. "I'm fairly certain they're not even clues to a puzzle. They could be a code, a password, a throwaway sheet of paper. Where did you find it again?" "Never mind that," Alex replied, changing the subject to avoid giving Sandra details that could expose her. "If you can't figure it out, I don't know who can." Sandra paused for a long second. "I don't know what to tell you." She returned, standing next to the table. "Well, we should find this Steve. This city is not for the unassisted newcomer, let me tell you," she said. "That's exactly what I was worrying about," Alex agreed. "I always wondered why you shortened Cassondra to Cass instead of Sondra. We could be a team!" Sandra laughed. "Sandra and Sondra. Perfect!" Alex laughed in response. "Let's get out there." Subchapter Three: Hominum Revelare I opened the iron door with the push of a button. It led to a balcony overlooking a huge storage room stocked to the extreme with Gott-Meinian acid. Wooden boxes. I realized wood must have some property keeping the acid from melting through, as there would be no other reason to use it. The two box-carriers came through a side door, with their acid. "Got back the boxes, boss," one reported to the supervisor below. The acoustics in the room were such that I could hear their voices even from my position. I heard a shout, and saw a Verian pointing at me. The supervisor looked up, as did some others, and an alarm was pulled. I suddenly realized I'd overstayed my welcome, and returned through the iron door. I sprinted along the hallway outwards, broke down the door, and ran out into the street where the alarm was still blaring. Bustling Verians retreated into their homes frantically, climbing ladders and sprinting across narrow air bridges until I realized I was alone in the street. The angered voices of police caught my attention, and I suddenly found myself running, pursued by five Verians. ---- I leapt over a fence into an alley, crossing through it to enter a new street, this one full of Verians running. I jumped down one of the commonplace ledges and ran directly into another Verian. "Oh, sorry abo- Alex!" I cried, recognizing her Verian disguise and the somewhat more obvious dog (mine) standing next to her. "I'm being chased, we need to get back to your friend's place." "Her name is Sandra, she's too old to be my friend, and let's get going," Alex huffed, out of breath, before turning and running the other direction. I followed as the police Verians ran up behind me. ---- We ran into Sandra's house, the police still in pursuit. They burst through the door after us as Doug and I followed Alex into the back of the house. "Um... Alex, what's the plan here?" "You'll see!" she yelled as we entered Sandra's bedroom, vaulting over the beds and backing up against the wall as the Verians entered. "Intruder!" one hissed. "You should be arrested! And you," she gestured towards Alex, "for aiding and abetting!" Doug barked viciously at one of the Verians. "Oh, we're not just intruders," Alex admitted. I turned to her, trying to signal that this wasn't a good idea. "Steve, take off the illusion." "This is a bad-" "Just do it!" Alex yelled, switching off hers. I did the same, revealing my human form. "Humans!" the Verian screeched hatefully. "You'll be killed!" "Try it," said Alex, confidently, "because we're not just humans, we're-" She had no time to finish the sentence before being shot by the Verian. Doug snarled. Alex collapsed to the ground and her items fell out of her body. "No!" I cried out, but even before I could her body began to emanate a golden shine. The death of a player, my mind brought to its forefront, the information having been tucked away somewhere in my head from Muriminus' invasion of it. The rebirth. Her body faded away, but even before it had finished, a glowing golden humanoid form began to form on Sandra's bed, between me and the Verians. Their eyes widened, their weapons were lowered, and they each took one ginger step backwards like some freaky synchronized dance. They had gone, as plain as day, from threatening and angry to frightened and retreating. Alex's arms formed, and she rose into a standing position. "-players!" she finished the sentence, the golden shine fading. "They're players!" the lead Verian screamed. "Run! Gott-Meinian acid! Find it! Find it!" They scampered from the room like animals, the house quickly becoming vacant. "Temporary solution," Alex admitted. "Good thing I used the bed before we left. Come on, let's go!" We were out and heading in the other direction, towards the front of town, as soon as Alex had her items and we had our illusions back on. Blaring siren noises seemed to have leapt from their source into the rest of the city, their noises echoing throughout the district. The streets were completely barren and I felt the hundreds of Verian eyes watching us as we ran. The faster and more well-adapted Verian police caught up with us quickly, as we could hear the stomping of feet in alleys, arrays of buildings like hollow walls between us and them. The housing district ended as soon as it began, and we were out in the streets, long rows of blinking-lighted shops left unattended by the sudden evacuation of public locations. The police entered with us, and we were once again in a footrace. I felt my stomach rush. I was hungry, I couldn't continue to run for much longer. Alex and I both realized around that same moment that we wouldn't be able to make it to the gate in time- Boom. As we ran past another intersection, twin explosions in front of us sent blocks flying across the street, colliding together into a patchwork wall that formed in front of our eyes. The speed at which said explosions had been apparently coordinated, set up, and activated with no regard for the storefronts they destroyed spoke a few paragraphs as to the structure of Verian government, but I hadn't more than a few seconds to muse on the subject. "We have to turn back!" Alex yelled to me. We both spun and began to aim at the prospect of taking one of the side roads we had just passed, but it was too late. Verians leveling wooden guns, sharpened swords, and other weaponry were closing in on us. I counted eleven at a glance, only assisted by the pale glow of store window lights. "Wood," Alex breathed. "It can hold Gott-Meinian acid." So my hypothesis was correct. One of the Verians held up a long shaft with a strange glass bulb on the end. He clicked something I couldn't see in the darkness of the center street, and it flashed, sending out a strange wave of particles that crossed us and dissipated. I realized how horribly similar it felt to the effects of a surface-morph illusion, and looked down at my hands, which were now pink and fleshy. Human. I looked over at Alex, who had suffered the same fate. "Players!" a Verian with a wooden gun - probably containing acid - yelled. "You break a treaty of many years entering this city and mingling with our kind like sneaky rats. Come with us or be killed!" He sneered. "You may well be killed anyway." I considered fighting, but there would be no way I could take all eleven on with their weapons and my lack of depth perception, even with Alex and Doug. Were we cornered? "Surrender now," another called from the squad. "You will make this easier for everyone." They advanced forward. Alex and I shared a glance at each other. A split second of recognization flashed through me at our ability to work with each others' actions. Unfortunately we were still both stumped. I looked back at the advancing police. Behind them a shroud the height of five of their bodies were they to stack upon each others' head, giving no mention to the shroud's width, which was far greater, floated from the side street into the main one. The lights dimmed in each store, concealing the form of the giant. Doug barked. They realized at precisely that moment that something was wrong, and three turned around to look. One yelled, and suddenly a giant stumpy gray foot smashed down onto her, its twin crushing two at once. The lights grew brighter than ever as the monster's feet raised up, and it was revealed: an elephantesque being clad in iron armor, rearing back. The crest of its helmet, between its eyes, was decorated in gold, and its eyes glowed a magical mixture of orange and yellow as it brought its forelegs slamming back down onto two more Verians. The remaining ones were shaken from their strange ailment of being frozen in surprise, and ran. The elephant turned as far as it could easily do so and trumpeted, its blowing cry like a war horn. It turned back towards us, and as its eyes dimmed so did the lights of the stores, returning to their normal gamma. From high up on its back leapt another Verian, who landed on the ground, feet spread and one hand touching down, in a manner that could only be described as "practiced meticulously for maximum impressiveness". By me, anyway. "Come on, you two, let's-" Rana began, lifting her head. When she had successfully done so (not difficult) her jaw dropped and she stared directly at me. "Um..." I said to her. "You're alive?" she yelled, probably louder than was necessary. A moot point, I realized, as her pet had just been cracking open the skulls of what were now streetbound corpses. "Steve, I swear to all things holy," she continued, progressing towards me. Doug growled at her. "Once we get out of here you are going to tell me exactly how you-" A low groan echoed through the empty streets from above. "War sirens," Rana whispered. The humming buzz of powerful motors slowly became apparent to us all, and louder as well. She looked up to the still-dark skies. "They've launched the Hawks. We need to get out of here, now." She turned back towards me. "This conversation isn't over." She heel-faced and marched to her elephant, beckoning for us to follow. "...We met her earlier a little down the street from here," Alex said. "Yep." "How does she know who you-" "Not a clue." I responded. "What are Hawks?" she queried. "No idea." Subchapter Four: Rana "So we met you earlier in the street," Alex clarified. "Yes," Rana confirmed. She was holding the reins of the giant elephant bounding through the city streets. "How does Steve know you?" We were being chased by three helicopter-like vehicles keeping pace with us. Turns out that's what a Hawk is. Shorthand for the Industrial Gerach Flyers which policed large threats to Verian culture. "I don't!" I interjected. We currently were one of said threats. "Well, apparently there's been some form of memory loss," Rana replied. She turned to me. "You don't remember me?" "From where?" I demanded. "I've had a pretty solid grasp on my life so far, and I've never met anyone named Rana." "Your life so far... what!?" she cried. "That makes no sense. How far back do you remember?" "I woke up on an island and I broke down some trees and built a house out of them." I realized slowly that my so-called origin story didn't make much sense. "Well, I guess I... I didn't really wake up as it is, I just... became self-aware." "Figures. We'll discuss this later, you've lost a good chunk of your memory, Steve. As for right now..." Rana stopped as we reached the end of a street, blocked off on two sides as high as the high-rise apartment-like buildings among which we had run on the back of her elephant. In front of us loomed a strong and imposing building, upon which in large lettering stood the name GOTT-MEIN. From all the windows of the high-rises to our sides leaned Verians with guns of all shapes and sizes. Rana swore under her breath. "Leave the elephant now!" a Verian voice hissed from below, into a crude megaphone. We had no choice but to comply. ---- We were led, twenty Verians to each of us, even Doug, into the facility. At gunpoint the Verian police marched us into the building, passing wooden vats and pipes, hundreds of workers, and gallons upon gallons upon gallons of Gott-Meinian acid. A player's worst enemy. Through tubelike corridors we shuffled until we reached our destination. "A synthesis lab," Rana said in awe. It was a huge, complex laboratory of specialized machines, tubes of unidentifiable liquid, and extremely futuristic computers. It was at least fifty blocks high and circular in outer shape. It had many vertical levels upon which Verians worked. Most of the lab had been haphazardly modified, a hack job producing many irregularities through which Gott-Meinian acid formed and moved. "They butchered this place," she finished. "It was built for the creation of life and they changed it into this." In the center of the lab sat a wide pole-like structure upon which sat a Verian we could only assume to be the leader of this place. His seat swiveled to look down upon us. "Why have you entered this city and disrupted my projects?" said the Verian, quieter than one would expect. "As project director for this synthesis I hold a very high position in this city. With this power," he began, heightening his volume and extending his arms all around him, "we will conquer the world!" "What power source are you using for this lab?" Rana yelled. "Excuse me?" the director scoffed. "You are in no position to ask questions of me, traitor to our kind. You sympathize with players, disrupt this city, and expect to be given any form of-" "Synthesis laboratories run on energies exclusive to players," Rana interrupted. "How are you powering it? If you're doing it wrong, we may all be in grave danger!" she yelled. "You need to tell me how you're..." Her gaze extended upwards above his head. Above it sat a white orb of energy. I suddenly realized, with a shock that turned my blood to ice, that it was exactly the same as the orb out of which the Omnibrine had emerged. "No," Rana denied. "You can't be using that. That's a Worldbolt. If you are-" "Enough!" the director yelled, standing quickly. "You infiltrate this city, break a treaty of many years, run recklessly through the streets, interrupt my project, and have the audacity to think you can accuse me of improper conduct! Police, what are you waiting for? Put the acid to use. Kill the players permanently!" "No, no," a raspy voice emanated from the orb. The director turned towards it, eyes widened. "Let her continue." The orb began to grow in size. "What is-" the director began, obviously flummoxed by this turn of events. "Sir, the Gott-Meinian acid has stopped flowing!" a Verian yelled. "What!?" he responded. "That's impossible, it's gravity!" "It's not moving!" the worker insisted. "Let me take this," the voice rasped. Slowly the acid began to vibrate and lift from its wooden containers. "No, literally." You could hear the grin in the voice. "Let me take it." As one, the dozens of different volumes of acid arched through the air into the orb, disappearing into it. "My lift won't work!" the director cried. "Get me down from here!" The acid ceased its flight, the streams ending and their last drops flowing into the orb. In a split second, an enormous arm of total darkness emanated from the orb, seeming to grow out of it, and grasped the project director around the midriff. It lifted him up, and plunged him into the orb, which spat beams of blinding light in all directions, exploding out. Our visions whited out. Subchapter Five: Where Nightmares Are Born I was the first to return to normal vision, as evidenced by everyone else continuing to shield their eyes. In front of me, half a block off the ground, floated a humanlike being. "Samuel...?" I began, but immediately I knew it was wrong. It appeared to be a carbon copy of Samuel but for two key details. The first was the most obvious: the entirety of his being was in grayscale, not a spot of color anywhere on his body. The second was his blank, entirely white eyes. An Omnibrine piece, no doubt about it. His body was shrouded in a yellowish green that didn't make sense to the eye, as if the liquid was always behind him, like cel shading in real life. "Who are you?" I gasped. "Me?" it asked in a mock-surprise tone. "I am... the Omnibrine. No!" it interjected harshly, "I am less. So much less. So much f-an-t-a-ssss-tic-al-ly less!" it cried, savoring each syllable of "fantastically", and also dividing it into more than was necessary. "I am myself! Ooooh, an individual in me I didn't know existed! Haha, isn't that fun!?" I began to be concerned with its apparent level of sanity. "I can hear them! Can't you hear the voices?" he questioned, looking back at me for an uncomfortable period of silence. Okay, not just insane, clichéd levels of insane- "They're all there, I can hear my brethren!" it blurted. "The Omnibrine pieces! All of them, we can speak to each other!" Okay, that makes sense. Well, more sense than my initial assumption at the very least. "What in..." I heard a voice behind me. Rana. I looked back at her from my prone position. "Oh no," she groaned in despair. "Your friend, Herobrine," the Samuel-like person continued. "My what, who?" I responded. Seriously, who's that? "The clone. The Omnibrine piece that looks like you," he clarified, extending the "you" to a strange degree. "He's alive. Alive and in your world! Can't you believe it?" Wait, that guy was back? "Escaped straight from the clutches of Muriminus, isn't that grand?" he giggled. "But onto your original question," he changed the subject, instantly becoming serious. "My name... Blackthorn. I choose the name Blackthorn." He raised his left hand in front of his face, extending his slender fingers. "Yes, yes I like it. The name of a conqueror." He rotated his wrist, seeming to examine the strange green aura-like coating around him. "The acid has affected me strangely for sure." He flung his arm to his side with intense strength, extending the green Gott-Meinian acid into three claw-like extensions in a fluid way that seemed like an act of inertia. He popped his neck to both sides. "Now that I've existed in the world for a while, time to test this body out." He descended fluidly from his floating position directly in front of me. In a split second his arm was in the air, and I twisted my body to the side, rolling away from the claws that presently stabbed the ground where my neck had been prior. My feet struck ground beneath my chin and propelled me onto them, raising my general position from "useless on the ground" to "less useless on my feet". He swept the large weaponized shroud at me like a misused Wolverine claw. Same amount of blades. How did I know that? I've never read a comic book. Wait, did I get it from one of the information reveries? Was Fratier a comic book fan? In the space of about a tenth of a second, I processed that information, realized that I was still in the path of Blackthorn's hand, leapt backwards out of the way, and noted that these random recalls needed to be curbed in some way. I met his return swipe with the sword Alex had given me. We met blades for a few seconds, until both of us determined it was not a matter of strength and he gradually parried my sword to the side until it hit the smooth floor. I drew back, moving backwards over the numerous Verians on the floor. He had caused dozens to fall unconscious, some of whom had been standing on high-rise platforms or precarious walkways at the time. He, watching me traverse them, rose from the ground and casually floated an inch over their bodies as he lazily glid towards me. He was having fun. I looked quickly to ensure my footing stayed steady, and in that time he swung his arm down. I turned back in time to jump and dodge, but I tripped backwards over a Verian and fell to the floor. He took his chance, raising his arm as he flew at me. I brought up my scimitar-like blade to counter his hand, and he struck it with such strength that I mentally thanked the designer of the sword for only sharpening the offensive side and thereby saving my hand. He pressed down harder as I pushed up with my arms. His strength was great, and I was losing the match. I heard a cry from behind Blackthorn, and saw Alex charge at him, apparently having awoken. I began to yell for her to stop, but before I could formulate a full word the gray man pivoted his body, swinging the green-clad arm in a wide rotation. It caught Alex at the midriff and her charge stopped instantly. She flew sideways like a doll thrown by an angry toddler, landing against the center pole on which the project director had been sitting prior. Three large gashes became apparent as her pink shirt gained dark stripes. By the time I noticed this I also realized that Blackthorn was facing me again, and that my sword was lodged in his chest. As I processed that information I watched my arm mechanically rise, his body elevating with it. My legs moved beneath me and I found myself on my feet, holding Blackthorn above my head. I wasn't even looking at him. The arm slashed forward, hurling his body across the room. I didn't even know I had the strength. He slammed into the steel wall of the laboratory, his green shroud dissipating. A My head jerked from aimless-watcher back into body-pilot mode and I found myself in control of myself again. My first conscious motion led me to Alex's side. "Well, this is a predicament," she coughed out, laughing lightly. She spattered her shirt with red when she spoke. "I hope this won't affect our relationship?" "No, no, okay, I just, I have-" I talked in the beginnings of sentences. Tiny snippets of coherent thoughts came from my head. "I guess I've always been a... cut above the rest? Eh? Eh?" Alex joked. "Stop distracting me, I just... I need to do what I did before." I extended out my hands but they were shaking too much for any semblance of a magical healing power to form. "Oh, don't worry about me," she reassured. "I'll be fine, just remind me to armor myself better next time I run in like that." "Don't lie to me!" I blurted. I could feel burning behind my eyes; tears were forming. "We take damage... instantly-" she stopped quickly to cough more blood onto her shirt. "Trust me, if I'm not dead, I'm not dying anytime soon." "Really? Are you telling the truth or are you just trying to make me feel better? Please tell me you're not lying," I shoved out of my mouth, the sentences colliding with each other. "Of course I'm telling the truth, silly." She raised an arm and softly punched my shoulder before letting the arm fall to the ground. "But..." she looked down at herself. "I think I might not be... healing from this." I looked to the gashes leading from her stomach down to her waist. They remained the same as they had been. "If this is permanent damage, I might... keep these next time I respawn." "Permanent damage?" I asked, feeling my heart sink like a sudden freefall. "It's how the acid... kills players. You don't heal from it. Nobody can, even players." Her eyes widened from their half-squint into full focus. "Steve, look-" she began to yell. I had already turned to look as soon as her eyes had widened, but before I could turn my head all the way I felt a blunt force catch me below my ribs and hurl me across the room. As I turned in the air, I saw Blackthorn's gray form standing behind where I had been. My head jerked back as I hit the floor. My entire body was sore from the fight or the impact. I tried to get up but my forearms gave way when I tried to put my weight on them. I heard Blackthorn close in on me. Subchapter Six: Death of a Player Blackthorn approached me slowly, his heavy footsteps echoing in the cylindrical room. I felt one of my legs jerk as he seized it. "You will not," he began, using my leg as leverage to hurl me across the room. I landed in a heap, and didn't even try to stand up again. He slowly but surely strode, like some twisted serial killer, toward me. "Kill me," he continued, repeating the grab he had done before, "now!" he yelled, throwing me again, but this time farther up than he had before. I felt my back strike a narrow duct that extended through the air between two workstations at opposite ends of the room. It cracked, and nullified my momentum such that I simply fell onto the ground. I felt a drop of something hit my back, and as I felt it begin burning through my clothes I realized I was collapsed under a broken duct of Gott-Meinian acid. Another drop hit my back. Permanent damage. "I've become myself now," Blackthorn boomed from above me. "I'm not planning on dying this soon in my manifestation. Besides," he laughed, once again examining his hands, "I think I might be able to respawn now. Like a real player. I can't wait to tell myself about this." He chuckled as the semi-nonsensical sentence became fully apparent in its meaning. "But first," he leapt up into the air, grabbing the duct where it had broken, and landing on the other side of me. He had wrenched it from the location it was fixed on the wall. He placed the duct softly on the ground. He roughly grabbed me and raised me, from the ground, to his eye level. I felt like I almost detected a hint of red in his eyes as they looked into mine. He shoved me with such strength that I once again found myself in the air, and then in a heap against the wall where I had been before. I raised my head in time to see the duct, like a javelin, flying at me far too fast for me to dodge. I barely felt any pain as it punctured through the wall behind me. The side effect was that it pinned me there as well, through a spot right below my ribs directly between my chest and stomach. A slow burning became evident as the Gott-Meinian acid burnt into my body. Unluckily enough for me, it seemed the duct had ended up upside-down, alongside all the gravitational mishaps that came with it. Blackthorn hunched himself over, seeming to concentrate. Slowly the outline of Gott-Meinian acid returned to his gray form. Once it became fully-formed, he returned to his straightened posture. "Don't you see, simple player Steve?" How did he know my name? "I'm stronger than any player." He began to lumber towards me. "I'm infused with acid, I can kill any of you instantly. I'm the Creation of the Void. I'm the Omnibrine. I suppose this makes no difference seeing as I can kill you on my own, but there are eight of me, and only two of you." He didn't know about Jennifer and Samuel. "Surround yourself with your own enemies," he gestured to the Verians, "but when it comes down to it, you have only two-" His head stopped speaking. It also stopped staying still, having been freed from its mooring at the top of his neck. His body collapsed as his head fell to the ground. Behind him stood a lone Verian, curved diamond sword in hand. Rana. "Three," she spat, looking down at his decapitated body. He began to gain color, a golden glow; the same that Alex had displayed when she was shot. He was respawning. He disappeared from the room entirely, off to wherever he was going to be reborn. But at least she had killed him for now. ---- "So what's the diagnosis, doc?" Alex joked. Rana had dragged her over to where I was pinned to the wall. Rana ignored her and put her hands on the duct. "Are you ready, Steve? This is going to hurt." I nodded, and she pulled the duct from the wall, yanking it through my body. I collapsed onto the ground, too burnt out to make a noise. "Okay, let's see if I can remove this damage," Rana declared, with far more of a matter-of-fact tone than she gave off with her body language. "That's not going to work very well," Alex responded. "You can't heal from permadamage." "Not under normal circumstances, but I might be able to work some magic with this." She procured a small glass bottle of what appeared to be water. "Water?" Alex voiced what we were both thinking in classic sarcasm. "Water. From a fountain called Eneeroth, named after an ancient wizard who could heal N-Type damage like this." She uncorked the bottle. "This water has been enchanted for thousands of years. It can heal it." "All of it?" Alex asked. "That's not very much water." "Yeah, that's where a little spell comes in that I've learned." She placed the water on the floor and rubbed her hands together. "Basically, in conjunction, it converts all this N-Type damage into regular healable damage." A magenta glow appeared around her hands. She muttered some unknown language and I felt myself regain my energy. I looked down and there was no longer a hole in my chest. Pink sparks fluttered around my previous wounds. I turned my head to look at Alex, whose skin had come back together where the slashes had been. The water drained from the bottle until it was empty. "So that's it? We're back to normal?" I asked, my first words since the healing seeming unnatural and strange. "Can you teach me that spell?" "Yeah, that's where I'm gonna admit I lied to you a bit, because there's no way you'd have accepted this if I'd told you... This is dark magic. When it's performed, the damage gets transferred to the spell caster." "No!" both Alex and I blurted. "Rana, you didn't!" she yelled. "It's gonna hit in a few seconds as far as I can tell. But hey, you guys really needed the healing. After all," she cracked a smile, "you guys have a daydream to follow." "Wait, you..." I began. She knew about Marvelous Daydream? But Alex cut me off before I could finish. "Rana, that's way too much damage for one person! Only a player could survive that, even if it could be healed!" Rana didn't speak, but her silence conveyed all the information she needed to say. "No," Alex blurted in disbelief. Rana reached down and opened the green coat she wore. On her waist was situated a simple device with which I was now extremely familiar. A generator for a surface-morph illusion, the same design as ours. The one designed by Samuel. She unlocked the switch and switched it off in a single motion. Before us stood a human. Her hair was a bright red, even more so than Alex's, and upon her head was a green cap made to resemble a frog. "You guys need to get out of here. Find me again. I'll-" The damage struck her all at once. She immediately stopped speaking, flashed red, and slumped, slowly descending onto the ground. Golden light exploded out of her with a fervent energy, and as suddenly as it had started it ended, leaving Alex and me alone in the room with the unconscious Verians. Rana had respawned. Category:Sad's Fanon Category:CotV